First of all, the idea that “[Islam] promotes the most murderous mayhem on the planet in their so-called ‘holiest-days’” is a bold-faced fabrication. A journalist would cite a Qur’anic verse or hadith to support this fantasy — but not Huckabee. On the contrary, the Qur’an admonishes Muslims, “O ye who believe! when the call is made for Prayer on Friday, hasten to the remembrance of Allah, and leave off all business. That is better for you, if you only knew” (62:10). The Qur’an specifically commands Muslims to forget all worldly matters and focus solely on prayer — and certainly not violence — on its holy days.

The Quran admonishes Muslims to seek God’s grace when they leave the mosque — and again there is no mention of violence. Now if Huckabee wishes to associate grace with violence, I can think of a few billion Christians — who believe in the grace of God as their salvation — who might object.

This isn’t Syria, or Saudi Arabia, it’s a nation in which more than 70 percent of its citizens identify as Christian. This is the United States of America. And when it comes to America’s “holy days,” a recent U.S. analysis determined that, “Christmas is the deadliest day of the year,” and “More people die in hospital emergency wards, or arrive dead on arrival, on Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day than on any other days of the year.”

According to Mike Huckabee’s standard, we must blame Christianity for the rape, murder, violence, theft, and high prison population in America because America is a Christian majority nation. According to Huckabee, all non-Christians should be “offended” — as he puts it in regards to Islam’s holy days — by Christmas and the higher death rates it somehow causes.

As a Muslim, I find these arguments ridiculous and won’t patronize my readers by employing them. Islam — like Christianity — teaches bridge building and tolerance. If people want to learn about Islam, do so from practicing American Muslims and recognized Islamic scholarship websites like www.alislam.org, not Huckabee, and not the Taliban or al Qaeda.

But it’s worth noting that the same way Huckabee employs half-truths under the guise of “telling it like it is” to defame Islam and compare Muslims to animals, Taliban and al Qaeda extremists use the American violence and rape statistics to defame Christianity and call Christians animals.